Brendan Costanza

Brendan Costanza
[[Image:|200px|Brendan Costanza]]
Name
Age
Colony
Birth place	{{{birthplace}}}
Birth Name	Brendan Constanza
Birth Date	{{{birthdate}}}
Callsign	Hot Dog
Nickname	{{{nickname}}}
Introduced	[[{{{seen}}}]]
Death
Parents
Siblings
Children
Marital Status	Single
Family Tree	View
Role	Viper Pilot Cadet, Battlestar Galactica
Rank	Lieutenant (presumed)
Serial Number	{{{serial}}}
Portrayed by	Bodie Olmos
Brendan Costanza is a Cylon
Brendan Costanza is a Final Five Cylon
Brendan Costanza is a Human/Cylon Hybrid
Brendan Costanza is an Original Series Cylon
Related Media
		@ BW Media
Additional Information
[[Image:|200px|Brendan Costanza]]

Overview

Lt. Brendan "Hot Dog" Constanza is a cocksure cadet, originally washed out of Colonial flight school, but selected as a candidate pilot ("nugget") for Viper training under the command of Kara "Starbuck" Thrace.

Biography

Constanza was a Fleet Academy washout, surviving the Cylon Holocaust. He is recruited as a Viper pilot trainee after an accident kills 7 Viper pilots, including Flat Top (Act of Contrition). Initially washed out from Viper training under Lieutenant Kara Thrace, Constanza is reinstated after Commander William Adama ordered his and other nuggets' return to flight training status.

After reinstatement, Constanza demonstrates an aptitude for being inventive and an overenthusiastic tendency for taking initiative. He acts more experienced than he really is and tries to be top dog. Constanza demonstrates this tendency when a group of eight Cylon Raiders encounter Starbuck, Hot Dog and his fellow nuggets on a training flight. Instead of obeying Starbuck's orders by returning to Galactica at full throttle, Hot Dog returns to assist Thrace as a wingman. This act almost gets the young, inexperienced pilot killed, but buys Starbuck time to dispatch all eight Raiders in a situation where, if not for Hot Dog's distraction of the collective enemy fighter group, Starbuck's odds of survival would be considerably less (Act of Contrition).

Constanza ejects from his severely damaged Viper and is subsequently rescued by Alert 1 (Act of Contrition) and a Raptor piloted by Sharon Valerii and Crashdown (You Can't Go Home Again). However, he loses his lunch on the raptor's deck.

Constanza develops a bond with Louanne Katraine and Chuckles, members of his training group (Act of Contrition).

Hot Dog takes part in the attack on a Cylon tylium refinery as part of Strike Force One (The Hand of God) and fends off a Cylon attack while Galactica relocates the separated Fleet (Scattered). After returning to Galactica, Hot Dog survives a brief run in with a Cylon Centurion that boards the ship (Valley of Darkness).

While flying CAP, Colonel Saul Tigh orders Hot Dog to intercept a Raptor carring the escaping President Laura Roslin. After pilot Apollo continues their escape after Hot Dog fires a warning shot across his bow, Col. Tigh orders Hot Dog to stand down rather than shoot Apollo's Raptor down (Resistance).

Notes

• Kat is promoted to Lieutenant after passing through Viper training as a cadet, so presumably Hot Dog has also been promoted to Lieutenant by the episode, "Final Cut", but this has not been confirmed in an aired episode as yet. Apparently, as seen in the episode "Scar" newly graduated cadets actually hold the rank of Ensign, and presumably get promoted over time. However, Kat has been confirmed as a Lieutenant and Hot Dog has been a pilot as just as long as her (they were in the first batch of nuggets), so he is still probably a Lieutenant.
• Actor Bodie Olmos is the youngest son of Edward James Olmos (Admiral William Adama) and the grandson of actor/singer Howard Keel.
• In the DVD commentary for "Act of Contrition", David Eick and Ron D. Moore elaborate on the increased role of the nugget pilots as the series progressed:

Eick: This young actress playing Kat has proven to be--and there's Bodie Olmos, Eddie's son, in the center there who's Hot Dog, he's also become a recurring character.

RDM: Well those three in the front, Chuckles, Hot Dog, and Kat, they all became "pilots" to us. And I don't think we really had any expectation of that. The idea was we were going to do "the nuggets", "the new pilots", was just going to be its own kind of story, and maybe you might see one of these guys again later. And what started happening is the writers just started putting them in, like almost every scene that we dealt with the pilots (of Galactica) so these became our "recognizable faces".